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Mr Hardman, who had been in a relationship with her for 14 years, received a call later that day and returned home to be informed by a police officer that she had died.

He told an inquest at Blackburn Coroner's Court: "I just said that she couldn't die - she has just had a baby. "You don't go to work expecting your girlfriend to die."

Marie had discharged herself from Royal Blackburn Hospital (Image: Googlemaps)

Mr Hardman insisted that blood clots had not been mentioned as a possible problem and he believed her swollen legs were due to water retention.

Before he left, he said she had a better night's sleep than previously and he had made her a cup of tea.

He knew that the district nurse was due to visit at 9.30am to change her dressings and deal with a catheter she had been fitted with.

The inquest heard that district nurse Nora Anderson had called on Miss Tompkins at her home in Haslingden, Lancs, but when she saw her curtains drawn, she assumed she may have had "an unsettled night" with her baby and decided to return later.

Poppy was in fact still in the neo-natal intensive care unit. She later called the house, on return to her office, and received no reply, the court was told.

Questioned by Vicky Tompkins, on behalf of the family, Mrs Anderson said there had been at least three failed visits, where Miss Tompkins had been out when colleagues called.

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Her notes also indicated that she had been regularly visiting her baby in the neo-natal intensive care unit at Burnley General Hospital.

She added: "We cannot escalate the situation if a person has been going out."

Dr Steven Mills, a consultant pathologist who conducted the post-mortem examination on Miss Tompkins, said that the cause of her death was pulmonary embolisms, or blood clots on the lungs, which had followed the caesarean section, brought on in turn by pre-eclampsia.

He said that it could typically take between 10 and 14 days for blood clots, which could be formed while patients are immobile after surgery, to develop in the legs and spread to the lungs.

Medics wanted to stabilise Miss Tompkins blood pressure and had put her on a new course of medication but she insisted she wanted to go home and care for her other daughter, Grace.

Miss Tompkins was told she would remain under the care of community nurses and her GP and had gone for check-ups at the Burnley Women and Newborns Centre while visiting baby Poppy, the inquest heard.